


Christmas Collaboration

by Musyc



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Christmas Presents, Community: dhr_advent, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff and Humor, blended families - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-20
Updated: 2019-12-20
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:28:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21873712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Musyc/pseuds/Musyc
Summary: Draco has no idea what to get Hermione for Christmas without spending money.Rose and Scorpius have ideas.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy, Scorpius Malfoy & Rose Weasley
Comments: 34
Kudos: 567
Collections: D/Hr Advent 2019





	Christmas Collaboration

"Maybe this will work," Draco mumbled, carefully examining a blown glass cat curled on a velvet cushion. "Not too expensive."

"Dad." Scorpius sighed beside him and held up the discreet price tag on a ribbon around the cat's front paw. "Not too expensive if you're one of us. That's two weeks salary for most people."

Draco wrinkled his nose. "What do you suggest then? We've looked in fourteen shops so far today, and you've put the veto on everything I've picked. No clothes, no jewelry, no decorations, definitely no makeup or hair fripperies. Can't even go with my usual fallback. She won't let me get her any more books until she goes through the library at the Manor. What am I supposed to do?"

"Stop thinking that money's going to solve all your problems?"

Draco laughed under his breath. "I'm a Malfoy. It's my first instinct." He clapped Scorpius on the shoulder. "All right, no more looking in shops for something to buy. Not right now, at least. Let's get something to drink."

Scorpius looked hopeful. "Can we go to--"

"Don't even think it. She'd kill me if I took you into a pub and don't think a dozen people wouldn't report on us the second we were spotted." Draco looked around, as if they might be overheard, then leaned down to his son's ear. "We'll go to the club. She never has to know."

* * *

"So how did it go?" Hermione leaned over the back of the chair and kissed the top of Scorpius' head. "Any success?"

Scorpius groaned and flicked at the wings of the toy Snitch on the table in front of him. It spun around, whirring quietly. "No," he muttered. "Complete failure. You're going to have to divorce him. It's the only solution."

Laughing, Hermione took a seat across the table. She snagged a heavily frosted cookie from the plate. "It's not that hard, Scorpius. Just don't let him buy anything for me. I don't want something from a shop."

Scorpius made a face, lifting one eyebrow at her in disbelief. "Do you have any idea how difficult it is to keep Draco Malfoy from spending money? I thought he was going to have a heart attack by the time we headed home. He didn't buy anything and it was killing him. The only charge slip he signed the entire day was at the club."

Hermione paused with the cookie an inch from her mouth.

Scorpius winced. "Yeah, forget that?"

Hermione slowly shook her head, then shoved the whole cookie into her mouth and chewed loudly, staring Scorpius in the eyes the entire time.

Scorpius slapped his hands over his ears. "Fine. Fine, you monster! I'll talk!"

Grinning, Hermione swallowed the rest of the cookie. She propped her chin in her hands and blinked innocently at Scorpius.

He gave another sigh and slumped in the chair. "He took me to the club. Yes, I had a drink. A whiskey sour. Just one, though, and it was mostly juice anyway. Half whiskey, half juice." He flicked a glance at Hermione, then shrugged. "All right, there was a little juice in it. But Dad had at least two snifters of brandy."

"Your father's in his forties, Scorpius. If he wants a hangover in the morning, that's his decision. Did either of you have something to eat, at least?" 

"Sausage rolls and bacon butties."

"Oh, very healthy."

"According to Dad, the club is where men go to avoid all the healthy foods their wives want them to eat."

Hermione huffed.

"I'm just saying," Scorpius muttered. 

Hermione pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head. "Letting that go," she said. "And blatantly changing the subject. Did you find anything for that young woman you were telling me about? Miss Montgomery?"

"Ilene?" A faint pink blush started to spread across Scorpius' cheeks. "I didn't. That is, I. She's not--"

"Scorpius." Hermione smiled at him. "You've mentioned her a minimum of once a day since you came home for Christmas break. You're a very bright young man, but you and your father have more than your looks in common. You're both absolutely incapable of hiding how you feel about a pretty girl. Have you asked her out yet?"

Scorpius made a face. "That's not how it is."

Hermione laughed quietly. "Oh, no. Of course not. I clearly misunderstood the fact that you talk about her all the time and that you happen to know her favorite color, flower, musician, book, and holiday spot."

"I don't know her favorite holiday spot." 

Hermione gave an impish smile. "But you do know the rest."

"Fine," Scorpius mumbled. He reached across the table and pulled the plate of cookies to him. "So I like her. What about it?"

"That's the wrong question. What you should be asking is 'what am I going to do about it?'. And I can help you there."

Scorpius snapped the antlers off a reindeer cookie and ate them. He lifted one shoulder in a shrug.

"I can. Because that's another thing you have in common with your father. You're hopeless at showing said pretty girl _how_ you feel. Fortunately, there's a holiday coming up very soon that involves handing over evidence of your feelings." Hermione sat up straight and pulled a biro out of her hair. She opened a pocket notebook and poised the pen over it. "Gift ideas. Go."

* * *

"So how did it go?" Draco asked, folding his dressing gown and laying it across the bench at the foot of the bed. "Did Scorpius actually admit to liking Miss Montgomery?"

"Her name is Ilene," Hermione said as she set her book aside. "Her favorite color is lilac, her favorite flower is the hydrangea, and her favorite legend is the story of King Arthur. She loves rainstorms, sunsets, and Cornwall." She flashed Draco a grin. "But Scorpius barely knows her."

"Oh, obviously," Draco drawled. He tossed a decorative pillow to the end of the bed and settled in, drawing the sheet up to his ribs before leaning over to press a kiss to Hermione's cheek. "What's he planning to buy her for Christmas?"

Hermione huffed. "Malfoys. All alike. Think with their vaults." She turned to nestle against his side, head on his shoulder. "It took some work, but I think I talked him out of _buying_ something. That's exactly what everyone would expect him to do. If he wants to impress the young lady, he needs to do precisely the opposite. No throwing money at her."

Draco, idly drawing random patterns on the back of her neck, paused for a moment before resuming much more slowly. "Nothing?" he asked in a low voice. "Buy nothing at all?"

Hermione shook her head. "Of course not. Christmas isn't about the most expensive present. It's about the most thoughtful one. She'll want something that shows he really put consideration into what she likes."

"And I, that is, he can't put consideration into a gift that he buys?" Draco twisted one of her curls around his finger. "What if it's something she really likes but--oh, say it's something she's always refused to buy for herself? Something she looks at every time she passes it in the shop? What if he got that for her?"

Hermione yawned and put her arm across his waist. "Well, maybe. It wo-" she yawned again, closing her eyes. "Would show that he was paying attention, I suppose," she said drowsily.

"Give me an example," Draco said. "What might something like that look like for you?"

Hermione snored.

* * *

"Nearly had it," Scorpius said to Rose over cups of mulled cider. "Nearly had her convinced to tell me what she wanted from Dad. But she kept changing the subject to what Ilene might want from me."

Rose groaned, dropping her head onto the table. "You know," she said, voice muffled through her hair, "for someone who's so smart, Mum can be a real pygmy puff sometimes."

Scorpius snorted and stirred his cider with a cinnamon stick. "She did give me a couple of ideas. Basically, she says what a girl--"

"Woman."

"Woman wants is something special."

Rose lifted her head and gave him a long look through her hair.

"Well, obviously," Scorpius said. "But I mean, something that couldn't come from anyone else."

"So no buying anything from a shop. Not even if it's custom made and one of a kind. Hint hint, Malfoys who can afford to get anything commissioned that they please."

Scorpius sighed. "Yeah, sort of. I swear, I tried a dozen different ways to get Hermione to tell me what she might think would qualify as special and unique and all that, but she kept turning the conversation on me. I had to pretend I had no idea what to get Ilene."

Rose sat up and scrubbed her hair into place. "What _are_ you getting her, anyway?"

"Dad taught me to do origami years ago. I'm making Ilene a bouquet of flowers, all in lavender and lilac. Giving them to her at Tintagel at sunset." He grinned. "If I get lucky, we'll get caught in a rainstorm."

"Cornwall in December? You have a good shot at that."

"Don't I know it." He leaned back in his chair, scrubbing at his chin with his knuckles. "That issue's solved, at least. I still have no idea what to tell Dad."

"That origami idea doesn't seem bad. Mum might like that. Otters, if he can make them."

Scorpius shook his head. "Not unique enough. Dad makes little animals all the time. They're all over the Manor. Can barely turn around without tripping over some paper elephant or unicorn."

Rose idly tapped her spoon on the table. She looked at Scorpius, her mouth twisting. "Well," she drawled, and looked away. "I, um. Might have an idea. But your dad's not going to like it. Won't go for it. Don't even know why I'm bringing it up."

"Because my darling step-sister lives to torment me, proving her earned inheritance of the Weasley name?"

"Well, duh." She tapped her spoon faster, then met his eyes. "It does involved buying something, but Mum's not going to mind. Trust me on this. First, you'll need to go to Gringotts."

* * *

"This is ridiculous, Scorpius. I look like a fool." Draco stood in front of the mirror, nose wrinkled at his reflection.

"Rose swears she'll love it," Scorpius said from his sprawl in a nearby chair, playing with a cheap mobile phone. "Said she'll be ecstatic. New realms of pleasure. Shrieks of delight."

Draco half-turned, staring at his son with one brow raised. "Has Rose been reading romance novels again?"

"I'm extemporizing."

"You're spending too much time with Hermione, that's what you're doing." Draco turned back to the mirror. "Starting to sound like a dictionary yourself."

"And Rose kicked James Potter's arse at Quidditch, so she's starting to be like you." He grinned toothily, eyes wide in a parody of innocence. "Blended families are _keen_ , aren't they?"

"I knew I should never have taught you to speak." Draco tipped his head back and forth, then finally sighed. "Are you absolutely sure this qualifies for Hermione's Christmas gift? It doesn't seem special enough. Thoughtful and memorable, those were her specifications."

"Trust me, Dad." Scorpius stood, clapping Draco on one shoulder. In the mirror, they were a nearly identical set, Scorpius just a touch shorter than his father. Scorpius smiled and reached up to make bunny ears behind Draco's head as he took a picture. "She'll love it."

* * *

Hermione, Scorpius, and Rose sat in the cozy sitting room, surrounded by piles of paper and ribbon. Rose was already deep into a Quidditch tactics manual; Scorpius was re-arranging the contents of a potion brewing set. Hermione smiled at the two and sipped at a cup of breakfast tea, one hand absently stroking the nap of a warm winter cloak beside her.

She glanced at the clock on the mantle when it chimed. "Good heavens," she said, eyes widening. "Your father's been gone nearly half an hour. I should check on him."

Scorpius exchanged a look with Rose. "No," they said simultaneously. "He's fine."

Hermione blinked. Eyes narrowing, she looked at each of them in turn. "What's going on?"

Rose and Scorpius held a quick, silent conversation in expressive eye movements and hand gestures. Finally, Scorpius sighed. "You win," he muttered.

He sat up straight and looked at Hermione. "Dad's getting your present together."

Hermione touched her neck and the delicate chain of the necklace she'd opened that morning. "But I thought this was my present from him?" she said.

Scorpius shook his head. "Nope. That was a present. He has another one. _The_ present. You know, the unique special thing that proves he's been paying attention."

"Yeah," Rose added, closing her new book. "The thing. The thing with the you know."

Hermione stared. "That was remarkably unhelpful. Thank you, children."

There was a soft knock at the door and Draco's voice came through. "She ready?"

"Draco, what is going on?" Hermione called.

He pushed open the door and stepped through, stopping in the middle of the room. "For you," he said, gesturing at himself.

Hermione stared. And stared a little longer. And kept staring. Her mouth opened and closed but no sounds emerged.

Scorpius and Rose exchanged a low five.

Draco stood there wearing black. Nothing unusual in that. It was the items themselves, the ones Scorpius and Rose had decided would send Hermione reeling. Black athletic shoes. Black jeans. And a black tshirt.

Muggle clothes.

He looked at Hermione, his eyes worried. "This isn't right, is it?" he said in a resigned voice. "I look a fool. And I still ended up spending money. I'm sorry, Hermione, I tri--"

The words were cut off with a squeak when Hermione leapt out of her chair and across the room, nearly tackling Draco in a hug. They went down in a tangle of limbs.

Scorpius tugged the coffee table out of the way; Rose put the screen in front of the fireplace. Ignoring the sounds of kisses and muttered 'oh my god' and 'thought you'd like', they left the room and closed the door. 

"You know they're going to be shagging on the carpet," Rose said, her nose wrinkling.

"Like that's anything new."

They stared at each other for a moment, then burst out laughing, jumping up and around in victorious dances. "Congratulations, Santa's little helper," Scorpius said. "Successful present."

"Helper?" Rose said, hands on her hips. "Excuse me. I was Santa. You were the helper."

"No, no. I provided the present. Therefore, Santa."

"After my idea! Hence, Santa."

Affectionately bickering and shoving each other, the two headed for the kitchen, leaving Hermione and Draco to their private, Muggle-style, very special and unique, celebration.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all for nominating me to write for this fest again. As much as I love running it, I'm always grateful that you want me to write for it as well. Happy Christmas to all of you!


End file.
